Welcome to the end of another week with Inside Timeshare and the end of another week whatever it is of the lockdown or “house arrest” in the Canary Islands, although restrictions on movement are now beginning to be relaxed, we still have a long way to go. This week we began with the news of 19 embargoes against Anfi, then we highlighted yet another “fake” law firm operating out of Madrid. On Wednesday we published the news about another “claims” company in the UK with some very disturbing news, the director of the company and two other companies targeting timeshare owners is a convicted fraudster. Today we begin with a round-up of the news from the courts.

Although the courts have suspended many trials the administration side does seem to be working normally and is issuing sentences from the judges of trials held before the lockdown.

Late on Friday last week, the Court of First Instance No 4, San Bartelomé de Tirajana, issued yet another sentence against Anfi Sales SL and Anfi Resorts SL. The case involving a Swedish client had their contract declared null and void, with the return of over 51,000€ plus legal fees and legal interest.

The contract contravened the timeshare laws by containing floating weeks and the taking of illegal deposits within the statutory cooling off period. The court ordered that the amount paid as a deposit by the client on the day must be returned in double.

On Tuesday there was the news that 19 embargoes had been placed against Anfi, these were issued by four courts, numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5 of San Bartelomé de Tirajana. These embargoes involved Anfi Sales SL and Anfi Resorts SL, with a total value of over 309,000€.

These have already been transferred to the court’s account and will be ready to be paid directly to the client’s accounts, these clients hail from the UK, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Italy.

A day later news was received from the Costa del Sol with Marriott voluntarily paying into the court account over 28,000€. This a result of a “provisional execution order” being filed with the Court of First Instance No 6 of Estepona by the same two CLA lawyers Ángel and Óscar. The UK client will very soon be receiving their payment from the court directly to their account.

Miguel Ángel Melián Sanatana

Óscar Salvador Santana González

As we reported in June 2018, Marriott admitted to their shareholders that they have been losing in the Spanish courts and placed substantial sums aside to cover further cases.

Marriott has actually been very smart in this respect, by paying out quickly and voluntarily they avoid extra costs such as fines and increased interest. It is also very good news for all clients with cases against Marriott.

In all, it has been a very successful week for CLA and their clients with embargoes freezing funds on their behalf to the tune of almost 500,000€.

It is clear that CLA is doing what they say despite many detractors who claim it is all a “fraud and no one ever gets paid”.

On Tuesday, inside timeshare published a warning of yet another “fake law firm” emerging, Olmos Abogados, which appears to be targeting Dutch timeshare owners at the moment, but we suspect that it will not be long before we start to receive reports from other European timeshare owners.

After the enquiry by one of our Dutch readers, Inside Timeshare began a quick investigation into this “law firm” and passed on our findings to our reader. They, in turn, contacted Olmos Abogados with their suspicions based on our research, this is the reply they received, our apologies for the translation, but we feel the essence of the email has not really lost too much in translation:

It seems that you embed us in the same category as those of others who cheat money essential methods of cajoling people who do not understand what it is about. We can not and must not accept this.

We are a serious recognized law firm whose registered holder of the Bar of Madrid, which you yourself have been able to ascertain.

We can not and must not accept that you give us guidelines how the transfer must be done to thy favors.

First because the contract for transfer is given by the Court and not by us. Second, the Court will this contract in any case give without payment of the 9.2% legal fees he had received.

If you really want to be 100% sure that it will be transferred to you allocated amount of EUR 49152.98 to you is, as you already knew, the only way to pay the statutory 9.2% amounting to 4522.07 euros in the Escrow Holding Court.

In case you do not want to do this, we owe it to the Court to indicate that YOU (clients name) to perform this payment after the Court Your file will be closed and you thereby further has no rights to use your timeshare and other recoveries.

Today after 16:00 we will contact you by phone you (if you want to be as polite phone recording)

and we will ask your any further explanation.

Sincerely;

OLMOS ABOGADOS

As you can see from their response, they are basically calling our reader an “idiot” for believing that they are a “SCAM and a Fraud”.

The last part of the response did actually make us laugh, if the client did not pay then they would lose all their “rights to use the timeshare” and recover any money.

This response from Olmos Abogados is bullying with desperation, would a genuine law firm use these tactics? We think not.

Well done the defence team you allowed him to go free and all he did was start up again and target timeshare owners, many who are elderly just like the those he defrauded when he was convicted.

We must also ask how can a convicted fraudster be allowed to be a director of three companies, surely they should be barred from ever holding this position. Something is certainly wrong with the system.

This should put you the reader in no doubt that you should do your homework before engaging with any company contacting you regarding claiming for the misselling of timeshare.

If you have been contacted by any of the companies highlighted on Inside Timeshare or any which we have not or if you need any help in checking them out, please use our contact page and Inside Timeshare will get back to you.

Have a great weekend and join us again next week for more news and warnings about the murky world of timeshare.